Appearance as Essence. On the Contradictory History of the Love Trade
Keywords:
prostitution, commodity form, labor, service, sex workAbstract
“Prostitution” refers to the specific bourgeois-capitalist constellation of the sexual trade. In this society, it is seen as a “necessary evil”, but not as “honest work”. Prostitutes are subjected to comprehensive surveillance and regulation, which makes what is considered a suspiciously debauched trade similar in form to wage labor. The distinctive features of the whore’s trade, the unity of advertising, commodity and saleswoman in a promising appearance, are forced out of the prostitute; instead, she is expected to satisfy necessary needs. This is the first step towards the current understanding of prostitution as a form of service, as “sex work”, which, according to Walter Benjamin, goes hand in hand with the fact that “work approaches prostitution”.
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